How easy/hard was it to for y'all to learn your multiplication tables? What grade did start learning and when did you know it all? (up to 12x12 I mean)
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So for context, I went to first grade in mainland China before immigrating to the United States, in China, they teach kids this weird trick that's basically like reciting a "poem" thing, which I didn't remember what it was called until I recently googled it. Its apparantly called the "九九乘法口诀表" or 9x9 Song / "The Nine-nine song" (Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_multiplication_table#The_Nine-nine_song_text_in_Chinese).
So like... in 2nd grade, for which I was in the US, multiplication was very easy for me, well... at least up to 10x10. Like idk how to explain it to someone who's doesn't speak a variant of Chinese, and even the rhythm only works for me in Mandarin somehow, when I try to use Cantonese, which is the language I speak at home in the US, I cannot replicate the rhythm to make thay thing work, this "Poem"/"Song" is only available to me in Mandarin, like when I think about multiplying together any 2 single digit number, I instictively use the "九九乘法口诀表".
Like its goes from 1x1 then next lines are 1x2, 2x2, then next are 1x3, 2x3, 3x3, then its 1x4, 2x4, 3x4, 4x4, etc... you get the idea, mutiples of 1, then 2, then 3. So if I need to multiply something by 7, I can start from the line where multiples of 7 are. Sometimes I can remember the exact phrase of it like for example 3x7, without starting from 1x7, then 2x7, then 3x7.
Like I never thought too hard about it, it kinda just became the "normal" way I do multiplication. But someone asked a question on Lemmy about reading analog clocks and I probably didn't answer their question correctly but that was when I kinda was like: oh wow I forgot that my way of multiplication is probably different from everyone else in the west.
Like if you told me to teach a English-Only speaker on how to do multiplication tables, I... um... I don't know how I would teach that, the "九九乘法口诀表" doesn't have the rhythm in English so I doubt converting the it to English would work.
Like even though I speak English as my primary language now, and I barely have any fluency in Mandarin or even Cantonese which I speak at home (and never learned any vocabulary beyond the basics), the "九九乘法口诀表" multiplication thing is always done in mandarin somehow, like its always been stuck in my brain even after all these years in the US.
TLDR answer to my own question. I do it using "九九乘法口诀表" which takes me 1-2 seconds to recall a specific line, so basically, anything up to 10x10 takes about 2 seconds for my brsin to process, 11x11x to 12x12 takes about 5-10 seconds, anything bigger and I just giveup using my brain and pull out a calculator. I memorized 10x10 since first grade, then 12x12 probably by like 2nd grade or maybe first half of 3rd grade.
How do y'all do it, is it easy or hard?
Edit: Okay so the best way for me to explain "九九乘法口诀表" is that: Think of PEMDAS (order of operations), but its for the entire multiplication up to 9x9.
I for sure learned the 11 times tables first and best. Up to 10.
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we just went to 10x10, and I think we did that in like 2nd grade. so like 8yo. we just had to straight up memorize it, no helpful song or anything. We did it in sections though, so one day we were supposed to memorize 1x1 to 1x10, another day 2x1 to 2x10 etc.
I can remember 11x11 because it is annoyingly 121 not 111, and 12x12 is 144 which I find kinda easy to remember because of gaming monitors using 144hz (I don't get why my brain makes those kinda associations, it just works for me idk). 11x12 is weird because it is the first multiplication where my brain starts picking it apart like 11x12 = (10x12) + (1x12) = 120 + 12 = 132
I also remember 144 being particularly pleasing. Also because it was the biggest number on the table.
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We're just talking past each other.
If that's your idea of a good time, then have at it.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I think when most people look at the clock, they just remember what time the shape means.
When I was young I remember encountering a clock with roman numerals and I was pretty scared of it, but it helped me learn to tell time more robustly.
Since then, I've also seen clocks without any numbers or dash marks on them at all. You just look at the clock face and get the approximate time.
So I don't think most people are doing multiplication to read the clock, I think they're just recalling what time that shape indicates, sometimes one hand at a time.
Maybe that's why drawing clocks is a test of memory for screening alzheimers patients.
EDIT: just reread the thread. I missed the part where the multiplication for the minute hand was something you learned in elementary school. That makes sense.
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I think when most people look at the clock, they just remember what time the shape means.
When I was young I remember encountering a clock with roman numerals and I was pretty scared of it, but it helped me learn to tell time more robustly.
Since then, I've also seen clocks without any numbers or dash marks on them at all. You just look at the clock face and get the approximate time.
So I don't think most people are doing multiplication to read the clock, I think they're just recalling what time that shape indicates, sometimes one hand at a time.
Maybe that's why drawing clocks is a test of memory for screening alzheimers patients.
EDIT: just reread the thread. I missed the part where the multiplication for the minute hand was something you learned in elementary school. That makes sense.
Yeah, I alluded to that in an earlier response here (people who grew up with analog clocks do not really think of multiplication when reading off the clock), but I definitely didn't explicitly say that. Also, the connection between multiplication and reading off the minute hand was briefly mentioned when we were taught multiplication (specifically, the times table for five) presumably as a means to reinforce multiplication (by connecting them with what we supposedly previously learned).
I suppose my point is if I am to teach how to read an analog clock to an adult who didn't grow up with them, I'll mention multiplication as a means to explain what's happening. Even with analog clocks with no marks at all, there's an assumption that we're supposed to remember where the marks are—but since we've made an association between the shapes and the time, we can safely skip that step.
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So for context, I went to first grade in mainland China before immigrating to the United States, in China, they teach kids this weird trick that's basically like reciting a "poem" thing, which I didn't remember what it was called until I recently googled it. Its apparantly called the "九九乘法口诀表" or 9x9 Song / "The Nine-nine song" (Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_multiplication_table#The_Nine-nine_song_text_in_Chinese).
So like... in 2nd grade, for which I was in the US, multiplication was very easy for me, well... at least up to 10x10. Like idk how to explain it to someone who's doesn't speak a variant of Chinese, and even the rhythm only works for me in Mandarin somehow, when I try to use Cantonese, which is the language I speak at home in the US, I cannot replicate the rhythm to make thay thing work, this "Poem"/"Song" is only available to me in Mandarin, like when I think about multiplying together any 2 single digit number, I instictively use the "九九乘法口诀表".
Like its goes from 1x1 then next lines are 1x2, 2x2, then next are 1x3, 2x3, 3x3, then its 1x4, 2x4, 3x4, 4x4, etc... you get the idea, mutiples of 1, then 2, then 3. So if I need to multiply something by 7, I can start from the line where multiples of 7 are. Sometimes I can remember the exact phrase of it like for example 3x7, without starting from 1x7, then 2x7, then 3x7.
Like I never thought too hard about it, it kinda just became the "normal" way I do multiplication. But someone asked a question on Lemmy about reading analog clocks and I probably didn't answer their question correctly but that was when I kinda was like: oh wow I forgot that my way of multiplication is probably different from everyone else in the west.
Like if you told me to teach a English-Only speaker on how to do multiplication tables, I... um... I don't know how I would teach that, the "九九乘法口诀表" doesn't have the rhythm in English so I doubt converting the it to English would work.
Like even though I speak English as my primary language now, and I barely have any fluency in Mandarin or even Cantonese which I speak at home (and never learned any vocabulary beyond the basics), the "九九乘法口诀表" multiplication thing is always done in mandarin somehow, like its always been stuck in my brain even after all these years in the US.
TLDR answer to my own question. I do it using "九九乘法口诀表" which takes me 1-2 seconds to recall a specific line, so basically, anything up to 10x10 takes about 2 seconds for my brsin to process, 11x11x to 12x12 takes about 5-10 seconds, anything bigger and I just giveup using my brain and pull out a calculator. I memorized 10x10 since first grade, then 12x12 probably by like 2nd grade or maybe first half of 3rd grade.
How do y'all do it, is it easy or hard?
Edit: Okay so the best way for me to explain "九九乘法口诀表" is that: Think of PEMDAS (order of operations), but its for the entire multiplication up to 9x9.
I was 8 years old when I learned the multiplication table and I honed it through repetition over the next couple years. Everyone in our class had a multiplication table taped to the upper left corner of our desks. I think it was optional. Not required. It was more of a fashion statement at the time, showing who had a "Trapper Keeper" because we'd cut that multiplication table out of the corner of one of the folders that the trapper keepers came with. So it was in style at the time in the mid 1980s. In idle moments I'd study it. It was fascinating as I began to notice the patterns and the magic of the math and it was fun to learn & memorize. Grateful to learn that in my youth because my brain would not be so pliable & spongelike these days.
